One Hundred and Eighty!

Friday night is Flechettes night!

Since la Rentrée, we have gathered in the bowels of the foyer at 8:30 ready for a 9 o’clock start. The evening consists of 4 games of 501. The winner gets 4 points, 2nd place gets 3 points , 3rd gets 2 points and 1 point for 4th place. (Fortunately we don’t have to finish with a double otherwise we would be there all night!) This season there have been prizes donated by members of the group. There have been a variety so far ranging from home-made sanglier pate, a pizza from the van that comes to the village on a Friday night and last night the prizes were a bottle of sparkling wine for the person who came second and a bag of escargots as first prize. The amusing thing was that we had seen the man who had given the snails, collecting them in the lanes earlier in the week. I enjoy the snails that I buy from the shops, though I am not so sure I would be quite so confident cooking and eating ones gathered from the hedgerows. Anyhow, we didn't win but I must look out for a recipe just in case.

St Bruno's Day

Today is St Bruno’s day and this gives me an very good excuse to show off our new kittens Bruno and Mimi.

Unfortunately we had to have our 12 year old cat put to sleep last month as she was suffering from a liver infection. Since then, the house had not been the same, so when the Carcassonne S.P.A. had an open day on Sunday, we decided to go and see if they had any kittens. We fell in love with them as soon as we saw them.

I had really forgoten how time-consuming (and adorable) kittens can be.

Wine Tasting

We have just returned from a very pleasant afternoon sampling wines at Château de Cointes - one of our local vineyards

As we tasted a wide range of wines under the large pine trees, we were entertained by Jeff’H, who played a variety of Rock, Blues and Country music. It was a lovely setting with views over the vineyards and the Malepère Hills. Needless to say, the wine we liked the best was the most expensive!

Fête Locale

The lorries and trailers that were here for the Fête Locale this week have finally left Arzens. The stage has been dismantled and everyone is getting ready for the Rentrée and vendange.

The fête ran its usual course. On Saturday we went to the repas at the Arzenais, which was Paëlla. It was lovely to meet 2 Irish families who were staying in the village and were taking part in the village activities.

Over the four evenings there were a variety of groups which followed meals or tapas at the Arzenais and apéros in front of the foyer. If you didn’t feel inspired to dance, you could go on the dodgems or any of the other attractions that were on the road.

On Sunday, members of the Comité des Fête came round the houses giving out plants. We were entertained by a piano-accordionist who played a melody of tunes. As soon as he realized we were English, he played ‘God save Our Gracious Queen’!

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The other evening, as we were getting ready for bed, we noticed that a scorpion had walked into the dining-room. We managed to put the offending beastie in a glass and took it down the road. Our reference books told us that scorpions here are not dangerous to humans, but we weren’t going to take any chances.

Summer Storms

Yesterday the weather was amazingly hot, 34 degrees! It was lovely sitting by the pool doing crosswords, Sudokus and reading my book then dipping into the water to cool off. We ate dinner outside and just before bed had a lovely refreshing swim. As we swam the most amazing full moon appeared. According to the forecast, we were to have a clear night and the same weather today – no, (we should know the France météo forecasts by now). At 3 o’clock we could hear the distant rumble of thunder over the mountains. Gradually the thunder and lightening grew closer until it was right overhead. The noise was incredible. Once the storm had blown over, the rain arrived. Fortunately it didn’t last long and we were able to get back to sleep.

Summer in the South of France

This is a photograph of the field opposite our house. To me, sunflowers are synonymous with Summer in the south of France.

The Tour 2009

Thézan des Corbières was our closest place to watch Stage 5 of the Tour de France. We took out friends Von (who had never seen it before) and Mark. The day ran true to form (see my blog this time last year). The caravan came through throwing the usual goodies and then an hour later came the riders. Six cyclists were ahead of the peloton who all rushed past in a large group. I was amazed how close they were to us.

Mark Cavendish in the green jersey and Fabian Cancellara in yellow

The only thing that was different this year was the troop of soldiers who had turned up. About 60 militaires with guns, stood at the side of the road watching the race. (We weren’t sure if they were there to protect Lance or take him out.) I am glad they weren’t there when the caravan came through as we wouldn’t have got anything!